Total white out: Snowshoe hares vs global warming

Removing their white winter coat once kept snowshoe hares hidden in spring, but as the snows melt earlier, they are increasingly exposed. Can they fight back?

IT IS midsummer in Montana. Traipsing through the lush, dewy forest undergrowth, the morning mist is lifting and shafts of orange sunlight beam through the trees. To nature’s soundtrack of a gurgling stream and birdsong, we check for quarry in live traps near Seeley Lake in the Rocky mountains. From the third one we visit, a young snowshoe hare stares up at us, silent, its whiskered nose twitching. This juvenile has unwittingly signed itself up for a cross-continental journey for science.

The snowshoe hare is one of 11 species worldwide that turns pure white in winter. The regrowth of its brown summer pelt has evolved to synchronise with average snowmelt times – dates that have been relatively stable for centuries. Not any more. In temperate regions, periods of snow cover are getting shorter – one of the strongest signals of climate change. Snowmelt times are changing so quickly that hares are being caught out of fashion – staying white when their snowy background has already melted (see diagram). This young hare will be transported across the country to North Carolina State University, where it will help my companion Marketa Zimova and her colleagues answer an important question&colon; can the snowshoe hare adapt to shifting climate?